CHAPTER V: Syllable Structure in Ancient Chinese and Early Mandarin

《Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series》 2期 (1985/12) Pp. 91-107

摘要

In previous chapters, the phonological systems of Ancient Chinese and Early Mandarin have been reconstructed independently of each other. Now these two systems are to be connected by means of a set of phonological rules which change the earlier system to the later one. The immediate purpose of the study is two-fold. One is to check whether the two systmes, separately arrived at, characterize the phonology of the two stages of standard Chinese in such a way that a simple description of historical changes is possible. The other purpose is to draw a general picture of phonological changes taking place between the two stages of history which would then provide guidelines for the study of the development of Chinese sounds after Ancient Chinese. In order to carry out the diachronic study, synchronic descriptions of the phonology of the two stages are first made in this chapter. However, there will be no attempt to discuss the synchronic aspect of either stage in detail. The phonology of either stage will be described only informally to test whether the chosen features have properly characterized the sounds of the language and to provide relevant information about phonological and phonetic characteristics of both stages as the basis of diachronic study.